My Undead System

Ch. 18 - Horde

Jorge’s face twitched. His hoarse voice forcefully burst out of his throat. “Everyone, go back inside!”

One by one, he visited the people mending their defenses. Right after they finished, he tapped them on the shoulder. “Nice work. Go inside!”

Once he went back in, he stationed more guards as lookouts to keep him informed of the situation. Inside the hospital, the people shivered when they heard the news. Frightened, they searched for rooms to barricade, in case the undead broke through their barricades. Jorge, though, called one guard for a strategy meeting.

The corridors of the hospital, for the first time in a while, were clear of people. Only Jorge, a guard he called, and Coral remained. Those who could go up the stairs went to the second floor, whilst the older folk grabbed the rooms they could reach.

Cold sweat drenched Jorge’s face. It went through the fabric of his clothes and ran down his spine, sending chills throughout his body. Lily stood by his side and held his hand, which elevated his spirits. In front of Coral and the guard, he tried his best to keep a stoic posture.

When they made sure people were safe, they dragged a table in the middle of the corridor and sat around it. Jorge stood to one side and looked at them. His face filled with sadness, he sighed. He turned his gaze to the guard and seriously asked. “If those things come to the hospital, will it hold?”

The guard pondered for a while and shook his head. “At the Juvenile Detention Facility, we had walls, and they still broke through…”

“Right…”

Coral suggested. “We still have some time until they get here. We can leave…”

Jorge glanced at the guard, who liked the idea. He nodded in agreement. Having made his mind, Jorge’s hoarse voice echoed in the empty corridors. “Then that’s what we do…”

Coral then asked. “In case we get separated, which is a likely scenario… Where do we meet?”

After giving it some thought, Jorge replied confidently. “How about the mayor’s place? It’s quite far from here and if we circle around, we can avoid the corpses…”

Coral and the guard agreed and began their routes to inform people of the plan. What they didn’t expect was the resistance they met when they told them. Besides a few old men and women on the first floor, Coral failed to convince the younger generation on the second.

No matter how hard she tried to explain, they would always close the door in her face. Coral didn’t give up and insisted. Meanwhile, Jorge, with Lily’s help, split the supplies they had left and put it into a backpack, which brought another set of trouble.

The person who went against him before opposed him yet again. “What do you think you are doing?”

Jorge coldly replied. “What does it look like?”

The man grabbed the bag from Jorge’s hand. “You are not taking these…”

Not in the mood to argue, Jorge pulled it to his side forcefully. “Evenly split. Now back off…”

The icy stare shot daggers into the man’s soul. Unaware of it himself, he took a step back. Once he realized what had happened, he simply lowered his head and let Jorge continue.

After a while, Coral returned with a few people that accepted the plan they came up with. The guard reluctantly parted with a couple of weapons and together they set foot outside the hospital.

Whoever left behind barred the doors. Jorge sent a scout ahead while they waited by the gate. A few minutes later, he returned. “We are still on time. It appears they have difficulty coming up, but they’ll soon be here…”

Coral looked at the stoic man and sighed. “We don’t have a choice. We’ll have to descend from the other side…”

With the new information the group gained, Jorge led his group down from behind the hospital so they could escape inconspicuously. The slippery ground made it harder for them.

The back side of the hill was steep and deep. A wrong move could easily lead to a deadly fall. Lightly packed, the group carefully took one step after the other, walking in a single line, helping each other along the way.

A couple of hours passed since they began their descent and a couple of meters from the root of the knoll, Jorge slipped. The others heard the thud upon impact. His groans reached their ears. Anxiously, Lily rushed down as fast as she could and found him with a twisted ankle. “Grandpa!”

“I’m ok, child… Just a minor sprain. Nothing I can’t handle!”

Soon after, Coral and a guard reached him and assessed the situation. Lily, with eyes full of worry, approached Coral and whispered in her ear. “What will happen to him when we have to run…?”

Coral shook her head and replied with a smile. “We’ll get to safety before that happens.”

By the time the horde of undead reached the hospital, Jorge and his group had already gone down. They barely made it before nighttime. The surrounding area appeared to be safe as two guards helped pick him up and support him.

Despite being in pain and in need of immediate medical attention, it didn’t stop them from moving away. In the dark, with no way to pinpoint their location, they pushed through by sheer will and hope.

Just as they created some distance, a loud bombardment of screams echoed from atop the hill. Gunshots one after the other came from where the hospital was at.

The undead broke through the gate and made their way in. Even though Jorge and the others couldn’t see what was happening, the screams alone painted a mental image in their minds. Coral and the rest remained silent. They closed their eyes and waited for the cries of pain to stop.

At the hospital, people frantically tried to escape the rotten creatures from tearing their flesh apart with their teeth. Some even jumped from the second floor, trying to get away.

Sprains or broken legs incapacitated them, making them easy prey. Undead flowed out of the windows behind them. The crackling bones from living and dead made the hair stand to whoever was close enough to hear it.

Although the once sturdy building is now infested with undead, more kept coming up and through the gate, pouring in like an endless stream of death.

In the meantime, the echo of the gunshots carried over for quite a distance until it reached Jin’s ears. He jumped up from his seated position and turned to Kroll and the others. “Did you hear that?”

Rena worriedly replied. “It came from the hospital, right?”

Jin, determined, looked at Kroll. Once he received a nod from him, he grabbed his baseball bat and a backpack. “Let’s go!”